Adjudicators for 2024 SPG Festival:
- Jean Brown, BC
- Miranda Wong, BC
Jean Brown - Elementary, Junior & Intermediate Divisions
Jean Brown has been a piano teacher in the Greater Vancouver area for over forty years. She has consistently developed students from a young age who have matured to regularly receive accolades placing first in the province and within the top 3 nation-wide.
Jean loves adjudicating for the past 18 years and is a member of the Adjudicators Association. She has had many call backs to festivals and recently enjoyed the opportunity of adjudicating for the Vancouver Kiwanis Music Festival.
Jean Brown has had several profoundly outstanding students throughout her career as a piano teacher. They have represented Vancouver, Coquitlam and the Fraser Valley in the Provincial Festival of the Arts, with several First-Place winners across the province. Her students have also represented Vancouver in the National Finals of the Canadian Music Competitions in various cities across Canada including Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Jolliette, and Vancouver.
Jean has twice taught students, in 1991 and 2016, who have received the Gold Medal for the highest ARCT mark in Canada. In 2016, her student was recognized as the “Young Artist for 2017” after placing First in the Registered Music Teachers national competition for ages 25 and under. Many more of Jean’s students have been recognized with other awards and examination results from the Royal Conservatory of Music, including several Gold Medals for various grades.
In past years Jean has taught at the Langley Community School of Music, and she presently teaches at the Jean Lyons School of Music in Vancouver as well as at her home in Port Moody
Ms. Brown has recently expanded her expertise to include the instruction of prospective piano teachers, sharing several tools and techniques that have proven successful with her numerous students. For up to date information on Jean’s newest events and material, we invite you to look up and/or follow Jean Brown Piano hosted through Facebook.
Miranda Wong, Senior Division
As solo recitalist, chamber musician, and teacher, Miranda Wong is equally at home with the music of the traditional classical repertoire as well as with the complexities of the contemporary idiom.
Her solo career has taken her to stages across Canada, the United States, England, and on many occasions before the microphones of CBC Radio. In the ten years as pianist of the contemporary music ensemble, Aventa, she has appeared at venues and festivals in North America (including the Roulette in Brooklyn, New York; Music Gallery and Gallery 345 in Toronto; and the Montreal New Music Festival) and Europe (including Copenhagen’s Athelas Festival and Munich’s A-DEvantgarde Festival). Another important focus rested with collaborations in world premieres, culminating in performances of the Trios for Horn, Violin and Piano by eminent composers Peter Maxwell Davies and Michael Finnissy.
Miranda Wong earned her Bachelor of Music from the University of Victoria, where she distinguished herself not only as the top graduate of the Music Faculty but also as the head of the university’s entire graduating class. Grants from the Canada Council enabled further studies in London, England, where she was awarded the Piano Performance Certificate from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Graduate work, again under full scholarship, earned her the Master of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Music of Johns Hopkins University. Her principal teachers were Leonard Shure, Leon Fleisher, Robin Wood, Ellen Mack and Berl Senofsky.
The wish to share in discovering ideas connecting music and life ensures that teaching remains at the forefront of her professional activities. Presently, Miranda Wong serves on the piano and chamber music faculty at the University of British Columbia’s School of Music.